A bank or other financial institution (hereinafter, ‘bank’) typically has customers that maintain accounts with such bank for the purpose of performing financial transactions including deposits, withdrawals, and the like. For example, a customer of the bank may have a checking account and a savings account with the bank, and may from time to time deposit a check or cash in the savings account, withdraw cash from the checking account, obtain a certified check based on funds in the savings account, etc.
As may be appreciated, the customer may remotely perform many transactions with the bank in connection with the accounts of such customer. For example, and is generally known, the customer may employ a telephone connection or computing connection with the bank in a generally automated manner to inquire regarding an account balance, transfer funds between accounts, direct that the bank pay an amount of funds to a particular recipient, and the like. Nevertheless, the customer may at times prefer to transact business with the bank in person at a branch office or other site of the bank (hereinafter, ‘in person’), or may be required to transact business with the bank in person. For example, the customer if withdrawing cash from an account thereof at the bank may at times be required to do so in person at such bank. Likewise, the customer if depositing instruments such as checks may at times also be required to do so in person at such bank.
It is to be appreciated that many banks now provide automated services that may obviate or at least reduce the need to perform in person transactions such as those set forth above. Most notably, many banks now provide automated teller machines (ATMs) that can perform at least some of the in person transactions on behalf of the bank. Nevertheless, some bank transactions still require that the customer be present at the bank, such as for example obtaining a certified check, or withdrawing a relatively large amount of funds in cash form.
Moreover, at least some customers of the bank prefer to perform banking transactions in person. For example, some of the customers do not like to use ATMs or are not able to use ATMS, while some of the customers do not have access to necessary telephone or computing technology to perform remote transactions with the bank in a generally automated manner.
For the customer of the bank that wishes to perform a transaction with the bank in person, either by choice or by necessity, it is oftentimes a relatively simple matter of the customer traveling to a local branch of the bank and performing the transaction thereat. However, if the customer is not near a local branch of the bank, traveling thereto is of course a more complicated matter. As should be understood, for such a remote customer, traveling to a local branch of the bank may require a long trip by automobile or bus or the like or even a trip by airplane, which in many circumstances requires an inordinate amount of effort that is likely not worthwhile. Moreover, if it happens that the bank wishes to attract such an in person transaction customer who is not near a local branch of such bank, the bank is of course severely limited in being able to do so because of the lack of a local branch for such customer.
Accordingly, a need exists for a method and mechanism by which a customer of a bank may perform an in person transaction with such bank without the need to travel to a local branch of the bank.